Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1887-11-10
TIraiuia fire. 2ress.
W.W.B. GALLAHER, Editor.
Chartestoac1., Jefferson County, West v
Noren,ber 10 1857.
COL. BGERsoLDsJUG OF EHIskT.
Hoe He Sent a Present and Got Tent
peFGnce Lecture tn Reply.

Ny DEAR CoLoyEL.-You remember,
I presume, once sending your friend Jug
Of chronic whisky bearing this letter Of
praise to his enemy
Il send you some Of the most wonder
fII whisky thatever drove a skeleton from
the feast Of painted landscapes in the
brain Of man. It Is the mingled souls Of
wheat and corn In It you viii find the
sunshine and the shadow that chased each
other over the billowy fields, the breath
Of June, the carol of the lark, the dews
Of night, the wealth Of summer, and au-
tumn's rich content, all golden with I'M
prisoned light. Drink it, and you viii
hear the voice Of men and maidens sing
inc the Harvest Home, mingled with
laughter the Of children Drink it, and
you will feel within your blood the star
led dawns, the dreamy, tawny dusks Of
many perfect days. For forty years this
liquid joy has been within the happy
slaves of oak, longing to touch the lips
of man"
Of course, Colonel, you viii be glad to
learn how he and it took TO each other.
Well, believing you, he drank Of that
| Jug till athe skeleton it drove from the
feast" came and sat in ugly profile on bis
hearthstone-drank till the landscapes in
blossom on the walls Of his home he pl-
fsred and pawned to paint your arid
landscapes in his brain It was "the
mingled souls Of wheat and corn, you
told him; but ere he half had finished,
it stole away the last reluctant kernel
garnered for growing children, and It con-
/ jured "the mingled souls" Of evil-doing
and pauper-Iiving to drive out the radi-
ant spirits of manhood and 4 plentious
life
Still he hoped, for you told him he'd
find in it sunshine, yet in it he found only
raven shadows, each tapping wings black
er than It's elder feIlow-shadows that
chased each other with buzzard greed for
both carcass and the immortal, and chas-
ed their victim out Of the great armchair
Of rich content up to borough pine stool
in the dismal garret, while close beside
him they chased into that NANCY shelter
the last Of one loving woman with the
broken soul, her fever-pinched young
John and little starving Mary. In 1t,
too, he found, not your pansy breath Of
June, the carol Of the lark, and the dews
Of night that kiss the coming corn, but
the stark-mad blast Of December, the bark
Of the wolf at his door, and the mouIder-
/ ing damps Of the night Of despair.
Then you sang to him Of the wealth Of
/ summer and autumn's rich content that
should twine the neck Of your Bourbon
ehaIice; but It twined for him 4 barren
summer to an angry winter and rags that
knit themselves together in imprisoned
darkness
Yet the friend Of your fascinating en-
nifty drank On I'LL, down IN the festering
cellar and the crawling sawdust, he loafed
and listened for your Harvest Home,
but heard only your brutal men and
maidens veudible utter maudIin blasphe-
nv Of the Master, and caught the melody
OF their shame in brace Of unclean song
Why. IT, he drank I'LL the heavenly
laughter Of little children round bis knee
died away into the dying ehild's whiz-
pered vail for bread
Drank Yea fast and deep he drank
your dreamy potion of, TIL deep and fast
within his blood he felt, never one star
led dawn, but forever a life ecIipsed, the
sun Of the future always setting, sinking
through the tawny dUsks Of the eiogded
mind toward that midnight which fore
tells no day into the final gloom Of the
drunkard-the damnation that s endless
IN It's desolation
There, declining foe, you'll find your
friend, and the days Of his homage 10 your
deformed genius being spent, he'll gather
courage To say "CoI. IngersoIl, II from
out thy earthen eask hath erept unto me
one liquid JOY, It Is that here look upon
its giver eternaIly kennelled beside the